On-line vendors sell a variety of products over the Internet. Users may browse a vendor's website and may purchase products directly from the vendor. Typically the user sets up an account with the vendor, and the vendor will provide some arrangement for accounting for purchases from the vendor's website either on a transaction or periodic basis.
For example, where the user is a member of a company department, it typically will be necessary for the user (in this case a department administrator) to set up an individual account for each authorized employee. A drawback of such an arrangement is that the transaction reports for each authorized user must be separately reviewed, and the department administrator cannot detect improper activity until the end of the billing cycle, and perhaps not even then.
In addition, there is the potential for disgruntled employees or even third-parties to steal the identity of authorized personnel, and incur improper charges or fraudulently obtain goods or services through an authorized individual's account. Presently, there is no method for a department administrator to detect such activity until the end of the billing cycle, when the improper charges might be detected, for example, during review of a monthly statement. In the interim, however, sizable improper charges may be incurred or goods stolen without possibility of recovery.
A similar situation arises where a user might want to set up an account with one or more vendors' website for a spouse or child. Specifically, the user may want to retain oversight of the spouse's or child's expenditures and the specific vendors at which purchases are made. It would also be desirable in this case for the user to be able to review purchases made by the spouse or child on a frequent basis to ensure that security for that account has not been compromised.
In view of the foregoing drawbacks of previously known on-line electronic commerce arrangements, it would be desirable to develop methods and apparatus whereby a user may create a primary account having multiple sub-accounts. The user may specify the features for each of the sub-accounts, including, for example, where purchases may be made, a spending limit per transaction or item, a notification threshold and reporting period.
An example of such a system in a family context would enable a parent to open a primary account with a service provider and then create sub-accounts for each child. In this manner the children could make purchases over the Internet at only those websites that are approved by the parent. The parent also could control the spending limits of the children's sub-accounts, receive a periodic notification of sub-account activity or a transaction-specific notification if a proposed purchase exceeds some threshold amount preset by the parent, and retain control in adding funds to the account.
In a business environment, a department administrator or company controller could open a primary account and then create sub-accounts for each authorized employee or department. The primary account holder then could control spending of the sub-accounts, control which websites are approved for sub-account purchases, receive periodic or transaction-specific notification of sub-account activity, and retain control to add additional funds to the account.
It therefore would be desirable to provide apparatus and methods for facilitating electronic commerce by enabling a user to set up a primary account with a service provider, wherein the service provider can handle transactions with a variety of vendors, and wherein the main account can create and exercise control over a plurality of sub-accounts.
It further would be desirable to provide apparatus and methods for facilitating electronic commerce that provide secure method financial transactions over the Internet or any other communication channel. It also would be desirable to provide apparatus and methods for facilitating electronic commerce that provide enhanced security by, periodically or on a transaction-specific basis, sending an E-mail or other notification to the primary account holder summarizing all transactions within the period. Alternatively, the primary account holder may set a notification threshold, so a transaction-specific notification is sent only when the purchase amount exceeds some preset limit.
It yet further would be desirable to provide apparatus and methods for wherein a security notification sent to the primary account holder could include a link that could be activated by the recipient to lock or freeze the sub-account associated with the notification. In this manner, if the primary account holder notices that a transaction was not authorized, the primary account holder may activate the link received in the notification to freeze the account, thereby preventing any further misuse. For example, a sub-account could be frozen by changing the password or by authorizing the service provider computer to temporarily lock the sub-account, subject to investigation.
It also would be desirable to provide apparatus and methods for facilitating electronic commerce that enable the primary account holder to transfer or receive money from other users of the system. For example, in an auction environment where both the buyer and the seller are authorized users of the system, the buyer who has successfully won a bid may want to transfer funds to the seller using the system in a secure and cost effective environment.